A
new Quinnipiac poll found that Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is now the "frontrunner" (and we use that word loosely) in the Republican race. Here's the breakdown among Republican voters:
Marco Rubio: 15 percent
Jeb Bush: 13 percent
Scott Walker: 11 percent
None of the 20 or so other candidates break into double digits. But Bush has also differentiated himself in another way—nudging out Chris Christie for the highest negatives:
Bush tops the “no way” list as 17 percent of Republican voters say they would definitely not support him. New Jersey Gov. Christopher Christie is next with 16 percent who give him a definite thumbs down, with 10 percent for U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.
Hillary Clinton only registered at seven percent in the "no way" category.
In the general election, at present, Rubio is the best GOP matchup against Clinton—getting 43 percent to Clinton's 45 percent share of national voters. That led Tim Malloy, assistant director of Quinnipiac University Poll, to this conclusion:
“This is the kind of survey that shoots adrenalin into a campaign. Marco Rubio gets strong enough numbers and favorability ratings to look like a legit threat to Hillary Clinton.”
Whoa, hold on buddy. You're joking, right? Clinton's got the highest name recognition in the field. The only Republican who rivals her in that category is Jeb Bush. Remember when Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker
gave that one speech in January and suddenly he was flavor of the week. Surprise, surprise, Walker's not riding quite as high after several months of slipups.
Brace yourselves, dear readers, for roller coaster polling over the coming months. Here's a little taste of 2012: